The South Korean modern pentathlon team is aiming to kill two birds with one stone at a world championships ahead of the Hangzhou Asian Games and qualify for the Paris 2024 Olympic Games.
The team will compete at the UIPM 2023 World Championships in Bath, England, from March 21-28.
Jeon Woong-tae (Gwangju Metropolitan Government), Jeong Jin-hwa, Lee Ji-hoon (LH), and Seo Chang-wan (Jeonnam-do) will compete in the men’s competition, while Kim Se-hee (BNK Savings Bank), Kim Sun-woo (Gyeonggi-do), Seong Seung-min (Korea Gymnastics Federation), and Kim Eun-joo (Gangwon Athletic Association) will compete in the women’s competition.
South Korea won the most medals of any country at last year’s event in Alexandria, Egypt, with two golds (men’s relay and mixed relay), one silver (women’s team event) and one bronze (women’s relay).
With the Hangzhou Asian Games just over a month away, this year’s event is a chance for athletes to showcase their hard-earned skills on the international stage.
The top three finishers in the men’s and women’s individual events will have an added incentive to qualify for next year’s Paris Olympics.
Korea has won a total of five individual World Championships podiums in the men’s event.
Lee Chun-heon won the first silver medal in 2004, and Jung Jin-hwa became the first Korean athlete to win an individual title in 2017, following bronze medals in 2012 and 2016. He was followed by Jeon Woong-tae in third place in 2019.
After finishing 3-4 in the men’s individual event at the 2021 Tokyo Olympics, Jeon and Jeong will look to build on last year’s success in the relay as well as return to the individual podium at the World Championships. The pair shared silver in the men’s relay at the 2019 and 2021 Games and have finished second or better at each of the last three World Championships. 온라인바카라
It will also be interesting to see if Korea can win a third consecutive mixed relay title, which they won in 2021 (Seo Chang-wan and Kim Se-hee) and last year (Jeon Woong-tae and Kim Sun-woo).
The men’s and women’s relay events will take place first on Nov. 21-22, followed by the men’s and women’s individual qualifiers on Nov. 23-24, the semifinals on Nov. 25-26 and the final on Nov. 27. The final day of competition will be the mixed relay on the 28th.